Part 224

The Emperor Probus, who expelled from Gaul, A. D. 277, the invaders then beginning to swarm upon the hapless province, removed a large body of captive Franks to the coast of Pontus, on the Euxine, and settled them there. The restive barbarians soon afterwards succeeded (A. D. 279) in capturing a fleet of vessels, in which they made their way to the Mediterranean, plundering the shores and islands as they passed towards the west. "The opulent city of Syracuse, in whose port the navies of Athens and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a handful of barbarians, who massacred the greatest part of the trembling inhabitants." This was the crowning exploit of the escaping Franks, after which they continued their voyage and reached in due time their own shores, among the islands of the delta of the Rhine.

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 12._

SYRACUSE: A. D. 878. Siege and capture by the Saracens.

See SICILY: A. D. 827-878.

SYRACUSE: End--------

SYRIA.

"Between the Arabian Desert and the eastern coast of the Levant there stretches—along almost the full extent of the latter, or for nearly 400 miles—a tract of fertile land varying from 70 to 100 miles in breadth. This is so broken up by mountain range and valley, that it has never all been brought under one native government; yet its well-defined boundaries—the sea on the west, Mount Taurus on the north, and the desert to east and south—give it a certain unity, and separate it from the rest of the world. It has rightly, therefore, been covered by one name, Syria. Like that of Palestine, the name is due to the Greeks, but by a reverse process. As 'Palestina,' which is really Philistina, was first the name of only a part of the coast, and thence spread inland to the desert, so Syria, which is a shorter form of Assyria, was originally applied by the Greeks to the whole of the Assyrian Empire from the Caucasus to the Levant, then shrank to this side of the Euphrates, and finally within the limits drawn above. … Syria is the north end of the Arabian world. … The population of Syria has always been essentially Semitic. …

See SEMITES.

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Syria's position between two of the oldest homes of the human race made her the passage for the earliest intercourse and exchanges of civilisation. It is doubtful whether history has to record any great campaigns … earlier than those which Egypt and Assyria waged against each other across the whole extent of Syria. …

See EGYPT: ABOUT B. C. 1700-1400, to B. C. 670-525].

The Hittites came south from Asia Minor over Mount Taurus, and the Ethiopians came north from their conquest of the Nile. Towards the end of the great duel between Assyria and Egypt, the Scythians from north of the Caucasus devastated Syria. When the Babylonian Empire fell, the Persians made her a province of their empire, and marched across her to Egypt.

See EGYPT: B. C. 525-332.

At the beginning of our era, she was overrun by the Parthians. The Persians invaded her a second time, just before the Moslem invasion of the seventh century.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-639

She fell, of course, under the Seljuk Turks in the eleventh [century].

See TURKS: A. D. 1063-1073, and after;

And in the thirteenth and fourteenth the Mongols thrice swept through her. Into this almost constant stream of empires and races, which swept through Syria from the earliest ages, Europe was drawn under Alexander the Great. …

See MACEDONIA: B. C. 334-330, and after.

She was scoured during the following centuries by the wars of the Seleucids and Ptolemies, and her plains were planted all over by their essentially Greek civilisation.

See SELEUCIDÆ; and JEWS: B. C. 332-167.

Pompey brought her under the Roman Empire, B. C. 65, and in this she remained till the Arabs took her, 634 A. D.

See ROME: B. C. 69-63; and JEWS: B. C. 166-40, and MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-639.

The Crusaders held her for a century, 1098-1187, and parts of her for a century more. …

See CRUSADES: A. D.1096-1099].

Napoleon the Great made her the pathway of his ambition towards that empire on the Euphrates and Indus whose fate was decided on her plains, 1799.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (AUGUST-AUGUST).

Since then, Syria's history has mainly consisted in a number of sporadic at·tempts on the part of the Western world to plant upon her both their civilisation and her former religion."

_George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, book 1, chapter 1._

ALSO IN: _C. R. Conder, Syrian Stone Lore._

_É. Reclus, The Earth and its Inhabitants: Asia, volume 4, chapter 9._

See, also, DAMASCUS.

SYRIA, CŒLE.

See CŒLE-SYRIA.

SYRO-CHALDEAN LANGUAGE, The.

See SEMITIC LANGUAGES.

SYRTIS MAJOR AND SYRTIS MINOR.

These were the names given by the Greeks to the two gulfs (or rather the two corners of the one great gulf) which deeply indent the coast of North Africa. Syrtis Major, or the Greater Syrtis, is now known as the Gulf of Sidra; Syrtis Minor as the Gulf of Khabs, or Cabes.

SYSSITIA, The.

"The most important feature in the Cretan mode of life is the usage of the Syssitia, or public meals, of which all the citizens partook, without distinction of rank or age. The origin of this institution cannot be traced: we learn however from Aristotle that it was not peculiar to the Greeks, but existed still earlier in the south of Italy among the Œnotrians. … At Sparta [which retained this institution, in common with Crete, to the latest times], the entertainment was provided at the expense, not of the state, but of those who shared it. The head of each family, as far as his means reached, contributed for all its members; but the citizen who was reduced to indigence lost his place at the public board. The guests were divided into companies, generally of fifteen persons, who filled up vacancies by ballot, in which unanimous consent was required for every election. No member, not even the king, was permitted to stay away, except on some extraordinary occasion, as of a sacrifice, or a lengthened chase, when he was expected to send a present to the table: such contributions frequently varied the frugal repast."

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapters 7-8._

SZATHMAR, Treaty of (1711).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1699-1718.

SZECHENYI, and the Hungarian wakening.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1815-1844.

SZEGEDIN, Battle of (1849).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

SZEGEDIN, The broken Treaty of.

See TURKS (THE OTTOMANS): A. D. 1402-1451.

SZIGETH, Siege of (1566).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1526-1567.

T

TABELLARIÆ, Leges.

"For a long period [at Rome] the votes in the Comitia were given vivâ voce …; but voting by ballot ('per tabellas') was introduced at the beginning of the 7th century [2d century B. C.] by a succession of laws which, from their subject, were named Leges Tabellariae. Cicero tells us that there were in all four, namely:

1. Lex Gabinia, passed B. C. 139. 2. Lex Cassia, carried in B. C. 137. 3. Lex Papiria, passed B. C. 131. 4. Lex Caelia, passed B. C. 107."

_W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity, chapter 4._

TABLES, The.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1638.

TABORITES, The.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1419-1434.

TABREEZ, Battle of.

See PERSIA: A. D. 1499-1887.

TACHIES, The.

See TEXAS: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

TACITUS, Roman Emperor, A. D. 275-276.

TACNA, Battle of (1880).

See CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884.

TACULLIES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ATHAPASCAN FAMILY.

TADCASTER FIGHT (1642).

Lord Fairfax, commanding in Yorkshire for the Parliament, and having his headquarters at Tadcaster, where he had assembled a small force, was attacked by 8,000 royalists, under the Earl of Newcastle, December 7, 1642, and forced to retire, after obstinate resistance. This was one of the earliest encounters of the great English Civil War.

_C. R. Markham, Life of the Great Lord Fairfax, chapter 8._

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TADMOR.

See PALMYRA.

TAENSAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: NATCHESAN FAMILY.

TAEXALI, The.

A tribe which held the northeastern coast of ancient Caledonia.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.

TAGLIACOZZO, Capture of Conradin at.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1250-1268.

TAGLIAMENTO, Battle of the (1797).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL).

TAGOS, OR TAGUS, The Greek title.

See DEMIURGI.

TAIFALÆ, The.

In the fourth century, "the Taifalæ inhabited that part of the province of Dacia which is now called Wallachia. They are first mentioned as allies of the Thervingi in A. D. 291 (Mamertin, Panegyr. ii. c. 17). Their ethnological relations are uncertain. Zosimus vaguely calls them Scythians (ii. c. 31); St. Martin conjectures that they were the last remains of the great and powerful nation of the Dacians, and Latham that they were Slavonians. But we only know for certain that they were constantly allies of the Visigoths, and that Farnobius, one of their chiefs, is expressly called a Goth by Ammianus (xxxi. c. 9). They subsequently accompanied the Visigoths in their migrations westward, and settled on the south side of the Liger, in the country of the Pictavi, where they were in the time of Gregory of Tours, who calls them Theiphali, and their district Theiphalia."

_W. Smith, Note to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 26._

TAILLE AND GABELLE, The.

Under the old regime, before the Revolution, "the chief item in the French budget was the taille [analogous to the English word 'tally']. This was a direct tax imposed upon the property of those assessed, and in theory it was in proportion to the amount they possessed. But in the most of France it fell chiefly upon personal property. It was impossible that with the most exact and honest system it should be accurately apportioned, and the system that was in force was both loose and dishonest. The local assessors exempted some and overtaxed others; they released their friends or their villages, and imposed an increased burden upon others, and, to a very large extent, exemptions or reductions were obtained by those who had money with which to bribe or to litigate. The bulk of this tax fell upon the peasants. From it, indeed, a large part of the population, and the part possessing the most of the wealth of the country, was entirely exempt. The nobility were free from any personal tax, and under this head were probably included 400,000 people. The clergy were free, almost all of the officials of every kind, and the members of many professions and trades. Many of the cities had obtained exemption from the taille by the payment of a sum of money, which was either nominal or very moderate. Only laborers and peasants, it was said, still remained subject to it. Out of 11,000,000 people [in the 17th century] in those portions of France where the taille was a personal tax, probably 2,500,000 were exempt. … Next to the taille, the most important tax was the gabelle, and, though less onerous, it also produced a vast amount of misery. The gabelle was a duty on salt, and it was farmed by the government. The burden of an excessive tax was increased by the cupidity of those who bought the right to collect its proceeds. The French government retained a monopoly of salt, much like that which it now possesses of tobacco, but the price which it charged for this article of necessity was such, that the States of Normandy declared that salt cost the people more than all the rest of their food. In some provinces the price fixed imposed a duty of about 3,000 per cent., and salt sold for nearly ten sous a pound, thirty times its present price in France, though it is still subject to a considerable duty. From this tax there were no personal exemptions, but large portions of the country were not subject to the gabelle. Brittany was free, Guienne, Poitou, and several other provinces were wholly exempt or paid a trifling subsidy. About one third of the population were free from this duty, and the exemption was so valued that a rumor that the gabelle was to be imposed was sufficient to excite a local insurrection. Such a duty, on an article like salt, was also necessarily much more oppressive for the poor than the rich. As the exorbitant price would compel many to go without the commodity, the tax was often rendered a direct one. The amount of salt was fixed which a family should consume, and this they were forced to take at the price established by the government. … The gabelle was farmed for about 20,000,000 livres, and to cover the expenses and profits of the farmers probably 27,000,000 in all was collected from the people. A family of six would, on an average, pay the equivalent of ninety francs, or about eighteen dollars a year, for this duty."

_J. B. Perkins, France under Mazarin, chapter 18 (volume 2)._

"Not only was the price of salt rendered exorbitant by the tax, but its consumption at this exorbitant price was compulsory. Every human being above seven years of age was bound to consume seven pounds of salt per annum, which salt, moreover, was to be exclusively used with food or in cooking. To use it for salting meat, butter, cheese, &c., was prohibited under severe penalties. The average price of salt [in the reign of Louis XIV.] over two-thirds of the country, was a shilling a pound. To buy salt of anyone but the authorised agents of the Government was punished by fines of 200, 300, and 500 livres (about £80 of our money), and smugglers were punished by imprisonment, the galleys, and death. … The use of salt in agriculture was rendered impossible, and it was forbidden, under a penalty of 300 livres (about £50), to take a beast to a salt-marsh, and allow it to drink sea-water. Salted hams and bacon were not allowed to enter the country. The salt used in the fisheries was supervised and guarded by such a number of vexatious regulations that one might suppose the object of the Government was to render that branch of commerce impossible. … But even the Gabelle was less onerous than the Taille. The amount of the Taille was fixed in the secret councils of the Government, according to the exigencies of the financial situation every year. The thirty-two Intendants of the provinces were informed of the amount which their districts were expected to forward to the Treasury. Each Intendant then made known to the Elections (sub-districts) of his Généralité the sum which they had to find, and the officers called Elus apportioned to each parish its quota of contribution. Then, in the parishes, was set in motion a system of blind, stupid, and remorseless extortion, of which one cannot read even now without a flash of indignation. {3060} First of all, the most flagitious partiality and injustice presided over the distribution of the tax. Parishes which had a friend at Court or in authority got exempt, and with them the tax was a mere form. But these exemptions caused it to fall with more crushing weight on their less fortunate neighbours, as the appointed sum must be made up, whoever paid it. The inequalities of taxation almost surpass belief. … But this was far from being the worst feature. The chief inhabitants of the country villages were compelled to fill, in rotation, the odious office of collectors. They were responsible for the gross amount to be levied, which they might get as they could out of their parishioners. … Friends, or persons who had powerful patrons, were exempted; while enemies, or the unprotected, were drained of their last farthing. … The collectors went about, we are told, always keeping well together for fear of violence, making their visits and perquisitions, and met everywhere with a chorus of imprecations. As the Taille was always in arrear, on one side of the street might be seen the collectors of the current year pursuing their exactions, while on the other side were those of the year previous engaged on the same business, and further on were the agents of the Gabelle and other taxes employed in a similar manner. From morning to evening, from year's beginning to year's ending, they tramped, escorted by volleys of oaths and curses, getting a penny here and a penny there; for prompt payment under this marvellous system was not to be thought of."

_J. C. Morison, The Reign of Louis XIV. (Fortnightly Review, April, 1874, volume 21)._

Under Colbert (1661-1683), in the reign of Louis XIV., both the taille (or villein tax, as it was often called) and the gabelle were greatly reduced, and the iniquities of their distribution and collection were much lessened.

_H. Martin, History of France: Age of Louis XIV., volume 1, chapter 1._

For an intimation of the origin of the taille,

See FRANCE: A. D. 1453-1461.

TAIPING REBELLION, The.

See CHINA: A. D. 1850-1864.

TAJ MAHAL, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 1605-1658.

TAKBIR, The.

The Mahometan war-cry—"God is Great."

TAKILMAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: TAKILMAN FAMILY.

TALAJOTS.

See SARDINIA, THE ISLAND: NAME AND EARLY HISTORY.

TALAVERA, Battle of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1809 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

TALCA, Battle of (1818).

See CHILE: A. D. 1810-1818.

TALENT, Attic, Babylonian, &c.

"Not only in Attica, but in almost all the Hellenic States, even in those which were not in Greece but were of Hellenic origin, money was reckoned by talents of sixty minas, the mina at a hundred drachmas, the drachma at six oboli. At Athens the obolus was divided into eight chalci … the chalcûs into seven lepta. Down to the half obolus, the Athenian money was, in general, coined only in silver; the dichalchon, or quarter obolus, in silver or copper; the chalcûs and the smaller pieces only in copper. … The value of the more ancient Attic silver talent, silver value reckoned for silver value, will be 1,500 thaler Prussian currency; of the mina, 25 thaler; of the drachma, 6 gute groschen; of the obolus 1 g. gr.,—equivalent to $1.026, $17.10, 71.1 cents, 2.85 cents respectively. … Before the time of Solon, the Attic money was heavier; also the commercial weight was heavier than that by which money was weighed. One hundred new drachmas were equivalent to 72-73 ancient drachmas; but the ancient weight remained with very little alteration as commercial weight, to which, in later times, an increase was also added. Through the alterations of Solon, the Attic money, which before stood to the Æginetan in the relation of 5:6, had to the same the relation of 3:5. The new was related to the ancient Attic money as 18:25. Compared with the heavy Æginetan drachma …, the Attic was called the light drachma. … The former was equivalent to ten Attic oboli; so that the Æginetan talent weighed more than 10,000 Attic drachmas. It was equal to the Babylonian talent. Nevertheless the Æginetan money was soon coined so light that it was related to the Attic nearly as 3:2. … The Corinthian talent is to be estimated as originally equivalent to the Æginetan, but it was also in later times diminished. … The Egyptian talent … contained, according to Varro in Pliny, eighty Roman pounds, and cannot, therefore, have been essentially different from the Attic talent, since the Attic mina is related to the Roman pound as 4:3. … The Euboic talent is related … to the Æginetan as five to six, and is no other than the money-talent of the Athenians in use before the time of Solon, and which continued in use as commercial weight. According to the most accurate valuation, therefore, one hundred Euboic drachmas are equivalent to 138 8/9 drachmas of Solon. … Appian has given the relation of the Alexandrian to the Euboic talent in round numbers as 6 to 7 = 120 to 140; but it was rather more accurately as 120 to 138 8/9. … So much gold … as was estimated to be equivalent to a talent of silver, was undoubtedly also called a talent of gold. And, finally, a weight of gold of 6,000 drachmas, the value of which, compared with silver, always depended upon the existing relation between them, was sometimes thus called."

_A. Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens (translated by Lamb), book 1, chapters 4-5._

See, also, SHEKEL.

TALLAGE, The.

"Under the general head of donum, auxilium, and the like, came a long series of imposts [in the period of the Norman kings], which were theoretically gifts of the nation to the king, and the amount of which was determined by the itinerant justices after separate negotiation with the payers. The most important of these, that which fell upon the towns and demesne lands of the Crown, is known as the tallage. This must have affected other property besides land, but the particular method in which it was to be collected was determined by the community on which it fell, or by special arrangement with the justices."

_W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 13, section 161 (volume 1)._

TALLEYRAND, Prince de: Alienation from Napoleon.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1807-1808.

TALLIGEWI, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALLEGHANS.

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TALMUD, The.

"The Talmud [from a Hebrew verb signifying 'to learn'] is a vast irregular repertory of Rabbinical reflections, discussions, and animadversions on a myriad of topics treated of or touched on in Holy Writ; a treasury, in chaotic arrangement, of Jewish lore, scientific, legal, and legendary; a great storehouse of extra-biblical, yet biblically referable, Jewish speculation, fancy, and faith. … The Talmud proper is throughout of a twofold character, and consists of two divisions, severally called the Mishna and the Gemara. … The Mishna, in this connection, may be regarded as the text of the Talmud itself, and the Gemara as a sort of commentary. … The Gemara regularly follows the Mishna, and annotates upon it sentence by sentence. … There are two Talmuds, the Yerushalmi [Jerusalem], or, more correctly, the Palestinian, and the Babli, that is, the Babylonian. The Mishna is pretty nearly the same in both these, but the Gemaras are different. The Talmud Yerushalmi gives the traditional sayings of the Palestinian Rabbis, … the 'Gemara of the Children of the West,' as it is styled; whereas the Talmud Babli gives the traditional sayings of the Rabbis of Babylon. This Talmud is about four times the size of the Jerusalem one; it is by far the more popular, and to it almost exclusively our remarks relate."

_P. I. Hershon, Talmudic Miscellany, introduction._

The date of the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud is fixed at about A. D. 500; that of Jerusalem was a century or more earlier.

See, also, MISCHNA.

TALUKDARS.